year, that the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle, remaining thereon, the children of Israel abode in their Israel abode in their tents, and journeyed not; but when it was taken up they journeyed. The same things, almost in the same words, are contained in the xlth of Exodus; only that whereas here in Numbers it is written that there was an appearance of fire all night, which, in the Hebrew idiom, is, that fire appeared: in Exodus it is directly said that fire was on the tabernacle by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, through all their jour

neys.

To be thus seen and understood by all, was the very end and purpose of exalting it there, as well among the Jews as the Persians, and by Alexander warring in Asia. To place it there, likewise, or to take it off, there needed no greater art than is used in beacons; as by a lamp, placed in a crystal lantern, the same end was served among the Persians: for the circumstances necessarily required in managing this matter are so obvious to common understandings, that neither the fuel of the fire on the pole over Alexander's tent, nor the machine that contained it, are any more specified than the same things over the tabernacle of the Israelites. But as it does not follow, that the lamp over the tent of Darius, nor the fire and smoke over Alexander's tent, did kindle or move of themselves, but are supposed to have been managed by proper officers, the same supposition ought as naturally to be made concerning the fire over the tent of Jehovah, and would as readily be so construed in the Old Testament as in other histories, were not men's minds prepossessed with the notion of a miracle in this case from their infancy, or that they are ignorant of the Scripture style and allusions. I grant it to be said, when the signals of the cloud are explained, Numb. ix. 23. that at the commandment of the Lord the Israelites rested in their tents, and at the commandment of the Lord they journeyed. But what immediately follows? Why this, They kept the charge of the Lord at the commandment of the Lord BY THE HAND OF MOSES, which irresistibly evinces, that what Moses ordered, as Jehovah's deputy, prime minister, or general, is said to be commanded by the Lord himself.

The very first march they made after the erecting of the tabernacle, and the appointing of the signals upon it, is thus related in the same book of Numbers, chap. x. 11, 12. And it came to pass on the twentieth day of the second month, in the second year, that the cloud was taken up from off the tabernacle of the testimony: and the children of Israel took their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai, and the cloud rested on the wilderness of Paran, and they encamped there. It is presently said, verse 13. And they first took their journey, according to the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses: a certain sign that he commanded the cloud as generalissimo, whoever had the immediate direction of it. Nor is it less manifest, as

we have been just saying, that the actions of Moses, Joshua, and other representatives, are in thousands of places attributed to God, the king of Israel; as in all ages has been the style, and yet continues to be, with regard to monarchs and sovereigns. But the Jews and Christians perpetually reading of the fire or cloud's going before and coming behind, whereof anon, of its resting on the top or before the door of the tabernacle, they presently think it moved so of itself, merely because the circumstances of managing it thus are omitted, in that abridgment of the Mosaic history contained in the Pentateuch. Men of immense learning, and most of them divines by profession, have undeniably proved it to be a real abridgment, but infinitely valuable, of some larger history of the Israelites.

I wonder those who are so fond of a miracle in the pillar of cloud and fire, do not affirm as much of the ark; since, after the Israelites had, in their second march, advanced three days journey from mount Sinai, Numb. x. 33, 34. The ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them in the three days journey, to search out a resting place for them; and the cloud of Jehovah was upon them by day, when they went out of the camp. No mention is here made of the ark's being carried on men's shoulders before the army, as representing God or the king's presence: and had not this circumstance been recorded elsewhere, with the rings and staves to make it portable, it must undoubtedly have been transformed into a miracle, as well as the cloud of Jehovah, every thing being denominated from the king, which, in the same place, is said, was upon them by day, when they went out of the camp, Exod. x. 34. To this a particular allusion is made in Deut. i. 32, 33. where the thing representing is called by the name of the thing represented. Where Moses, addressing the Jews, says, The Lord your God went in the way before you to search you out a place to pitch your tents in: in fire by night to show you by what way you should go, and in a cloud by day. This he likewise does, in Numb. x. 35, 36. by a very solemn form of words: for when the ark set forward, Moses said, Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee, flee before thee. And when it rested, he said, Return, Lord, unto the many thousands of Israel. From his royal pre-eminence, the cloud, as you have now seen, is called the_cloud of Jehovah; as Moses says, Numb. xiv. 14. It will be told the inhabitants of this land, that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them: by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night. Nothing can be plainer than all this.

There are also passages that show the cloud was taken down, and yet not exalted on a pole to move forward; as a sign not only that there was no march as usual, but that, upon high causes of displeasure, the discipline of the camp should no longer be observed; and that the people were to be abandoned, without head or guide in the wilderness. When Moses, upon

their making the golden calf, had removed the tabernacle out of the camp, it came to pass as he entered into the tabernacle, that the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, Exod. xxxiii. 9. that is, as clearly appears from the context, it was taken down from the tabernacle, yet not carried before the army as a sign of marching, but fixed before the door; because the Lord refused to go up with them, till afterward, upon their repentance, they were led on as before. So upon a like occasion, vis. the sedition of Aaron and Miriam, the pillar of the cloud descended, or was taken down, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, Numb. xii. 5, 10.

I hope by this time I have set in the clearest light the nature and use of the pillar of cloud and fire, directing the marches and stations of the Israelites in the wilderness; in such a light, I say, that no man of good understanding, or void of superstition, will any longer think it a miracle: for by a common rule, agreed upon no less by divines than others, that thing ought not to be reputed a miracle, which can be explained by the laws of nature or ordinary means, and where a perfect account is given of all appearances. On this score it is, that I have brought parallel examples, as I shall do more presently, out of authors posterior to Moses, not for proof, since that results from the thing itself, but for illustration; as all commentators explain the ancient by the modern usages of the Eastern nations, whereof numberless instances occur in their books. Where things, in short, seem in all respects alike, they ought to be deemed of the Jike nature, though one author be more particular in relating circumstances than another, or may use a different style and manner of writing.

I readily agree, however, that I am obliged to solve all the difficulties, which can be reasonably made against my account of the cloud. Some, that have been offered in fortuitous conversation, are extremely frivolous and impertinent. But the objection, with which I shall begin, appears at first sight to be the difficultest of all; or, if people will have it so, the most miraculous. When the Israelites, in their flight or expulsion, were got as far as Pihahiroth by the Red Sea, Exod. xiv. 5-12. and the Egyptians pursuing had come up close with them, being far superior in number and all other advantages: the first were in the utmost consternation, having the sea before and the enemy behind; which made them give themselves over for lost, not only as soon as the morning should appear, but even took it for granted they were to be attacked, and be quite destroyed that very night. The particulars you have in Exodus xiv. where it is further related, verse 19, 20. that the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, or front, and stood behind them, or in the rear: and it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Is

rael, and it was a cloud and darkness to those, but it gave light by night to these; so that the one came not near the other all that night. It is observable, that the Egyptians, accustomed to the manner of passing those deserts, were not amazed at the cloud, which they must certainly have been, were it a thing unusual, but, on the contrary, they followed it; though, as it will be immediately seen, it deceived and misguided them. The angel of God mentioned here, and about which the Christian divines of all nations are divided, some maintaining it to be the first of the heavenly hierarchy, but most that it was no meaner a person than Christ himself; I shall prove, in its place, to have been no other than a mere mortal man, the guide of the Israelites in the wilderness; and the overseer or director of the portable fire, as part of his peculiar office and province. But as for the thing itself, the moving of the fire, which is the point in question, it was a stratagem of war there, no less than elsewhere; which stratagem I lay here open to the meanest capacity, by a passage out of the Cyropedia, as being exactly parallel. When Cyrus and Cyaxares, at the head of an army of Medes and Persians, lay encamped in the enemy's country, the army of the Babylonians, Lydians, and Egyptians, far superior in number, came up with them at last. "Hereupon, says Xenophon, they did not by night kindle the fires in the centre of the camp, but in the front of it; that, if any of the enemy moved in the night, they might see and not be seen of them, by means of the fire. They likewise frequently placed the fire in the rear of the camp to deceive the enemy, which occasioned their scouts to fall in with the out guards; by reason the fires were behind the camp, whereas they supposed themselves to be at a considerable distance, as believing the fire was in its ordinary place." I have noted much such another passage in the same Xenophon, Lib. 8. & Hist. Graec. lib. 6. and there are many more in other historians. Here then you have fire removing from one place to another, sometimes before and sometimes behind the camp, but so ordered as to be a light and guide to the Persians, at the same time that it was darkness and deception to the Assyrians. "That if any of the enemy moved in the night," says the Greek writer, "they might see, and not be seen of them, by means of the fire." "It was a cloud and darkness to the Egyptians," says the Hebrew writer, "but it gave light by night to the Israelites, so that the one came not near the other all the night;" for the Egyptians, judging by the fire, thought the Israelites to be much nearer than they were. The only difference between the authors of the Pentateuch and the Cyropedia is, that the latter relates more particularly how this was done; while the other omits some circumstances, or rather words them differently, the thing being then familiar to every body. The author of the Cyropedia wrote of matters he learnt from strangers, utterly

we read in the receipt for making the smoke or cloud, there is a particular description of it, according to the art of the apothecary, for the service of the tabernacle, in Exod. xxx. 34-38. but with a severe prohibition not to make any of it for a common perfume, or for ordinary use.

It is evident, therefore, that the cloud in the oracle, or holiest place, whether of the tabernacle or the temple, was neither the cloud which guided the Israelites in the wilderness, nor any way miraculous in itself; and so nothing at all against my opinion, but a plain confirmation of the same.

The pillar of cloud and fire, which to say it in a word, is oftener mentioned under the name of a cloud than of fire, because the Israelites marched oftener by day than by night, it is not only confounded with the thick cloud of incense in the temple, and with that in the tabernacle before it; but also with the fire on the altar, for which I am going to cite the text that is brought to prove it, viz. Exod. xl. 34, 35. Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle and Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. But how? Not because of the cloud pitched on the top of the tabernacle, but by reason of the cloud on the altar of burnt offering at the door of the tabernacle, verse 29. then plentifully burning for the first time, and covering the place with its smoke; while the flame, or the glory of the Lord, from the altar of incense, verses 26, 27. filled the tabernacle. The like happened long after to the priests in Solomon's time; though we have sufficiently evinced that these clouds were of the priest's own making, and far from being the guiding cloud in the wilderness.

Another thing, scarce worth the mentioning, if many did not vehemently insist on it, is the fancy of those who multiply pillars, though they diminish clouds; and will needs have it, that the pillar of fire was one thing, and the pillar of cloud another. I grant they were so, in the sense that fire and smoke are called two things: but if I have proved, and that the nature of the thing shows, it was the flame and the smoke of the self same fire, that served, the one of them for a guide by day, and the other by night; then I think it a very improper way of speaking, to call them two pillars, as even Manasseh-Ben-Israel does, for whom I conceive nevertheless an uncommon esteem, where his judgment keeps pace with his learning. Moses no where says they were two pillars, no more than he any where says they were miraculous. Nay, he does in more than one place speak as of one pillar, though the twofold use of it has led many Jews and Christians into the notion of two distinct pillars. Thus in Exod. xiv. 20. it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel, and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but

it gave light by night to these. So in Numb. xi. 21. whether it was by day or by night that the cloud was taken up, they journeyed; where any man may demonstratively see, if he did not perceive it before, that the pillar of fire by night and the pillar of cloud by day, was one and the same thing.

Yet

Neither is there more weight in the next fancy, that the pillar of fire was so extraordinarily large and luminous, as not only to guide the whole army, but also to give so clear a light to every individual man in it, that, far from tripping or stumbling, he could see a pin or a needle at his feet. When once the wonderful has got into a man's head it wholly possesses him, and leaves no room for any thing else, nor knows how to set any bounds to itself. Scripture, forsooth, must be quoted for this precarious, or rather monstrous supposition. The principal text they bring, is this following one of Nehemiah. Yet thou, in thy manifold mercies, forsookest them not in the wilderness; the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to show them light, and the way wherein they should go. Here the utmost import of the words amounts to no more, than that the pillar showed the way to the whole army, which nobody denies; nor would any deny it, should the first column only see it, since the next would fol low that, and so of the rest. It was therefore a general guide, or point of view, for the place to which they tended; but not as to every man's feet, much less for their private concerns: a thing Jewish and Christian doctors have not been ashamed to affirm. To as little purpose do they cite this of the seventyeighth Psalm: In the day time also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire. Who denies it? But it would be abusing my reader's patience, to insist longer on this head; I am sure it would be showing a very mean opinion of his understanding,

The last text, however, puts me in mind of the hundred and fifth Psalm, out of which a passage is alleged to prove, that the basis of the pillar was so large, as to cover the whole camp of Israel, over which it hung perpendicularly. The words are, he spread a cloud for a covering, and fire to give light in the night. This is a plain allusion, as appears from the verses of that Psalm going before and coming after, to the 16th and 20th verses of the xiiith chapter of Exodus, where the placing of the cloud behind the camp became a covering, that is, a protection to it. The original word op мask, has no less general a sense; than covering has in English, as we say to cover an army or a town. This is self evident from those many places in the Old Testament, where it does. not always signify to cover or spread over the whole surface of any thing; but stands for hangings, protection, and the like; see Exod. xxvi. 36. and xxxv. 17; Psalm xci. 4. and cxl. 7; Isai. xxii. 8, &c. Nor

do the words over or under always imply what they are made to do on this occasion: since in the same sense that the cloud was said to be over the camp, by being elevated on the tabernacle in their stations, or on a pole in their marches: we say, and all men say, that such a body of men are under their colours, though not one single person is thereby covered. No more is any so, by the officers being said to be over them. Some lay great stress with respect to this total covering, on 1 Cor. x. 1, 2. where Paul, allegorizing on the principal passages of the Jewish deliverance from the Egyptian slavery, says, Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud; and in the sea. I leave the divines to battle it, about the meaning of baptizing in this place; for as none of the Israelites could be said, in favour of dipping, to have been under water in their passage over the sea; so I am afraid as little can be inferred, on the behalf of sprinkling, from the cloud; that gentle dew, which some have fancied, being a pure distillation of their own brains. But, as far as concerns my present subject, this passage is a palpable allusion to the places where the cloud is mentioned in the Pentateuch; particularly to the xiiith chapter of Exodus, just before the passing of the Israelites over the Red Sea.

The false interpretation forced upon the 39th verse of the cvth Psalm, by men who are not satisfied with the obvious sense of Scripture, or by others who do not find the Scripture countenancing their vain traditions, has produced more extravagant imaginations, than any of the strange glosses occasioned by the cloud. Some assert it did so cover the Israelites, as not only to keep off unwholesome dews or blasts, and the scorching heat of the sun; but that they never saw, nor indeed needed to see, the sun, moon, or stars, during the forty years they wandered in the wilderness. The Rabbins add, that the cloud like wool sacks or bags of earth in our modern trenches, deadened the arrows and artillery of the Egyptians, who plied the Israelites hard all the night. But not content with one cloud, they talk of no fewer than seven clouds of glory, encompassing the camp: four toward the four winds, lest any one should injure them with an evil eye; one above them, lest the sun, as we said, should hurt them; one under them, that should bear them up as a mother does her child; and the seventh, marching three days journey before them, depressing the hills and exalting the vallies into a level, destroying all manner of serpents, scorpions, or other noxious creatures, and marking the several places of pitching their camp. To be thus a marechal de champ, was nothing to other services. The cloud supplied each single sentinel instead of a laundress, a scourer, a nurse, and what not? purifying and whitening their

clothes, keeping their bodies clean from sweat or vermin, and fanning them in their march with refreshing breezes. Mighty disputes have been raised about the matter of the cloud. That I may here, once for all, rid my hands of such visions; as, whether it was not one of the things made before the creation of the world, but laid up till the proper time of using it? whether it was not created out of nothing, and reduced to nothing again? or if created out of something, whether it was out of elementary fire, and the ordinary matter of other clouds? Several maintain, that one side of it was obscure, and the other bright; that it was a symbol of the trinity, and that the second person thereof dwelt in it. This pillar has proved a fruitful field of allegories to the fathers and other divines, who, without any difficulty in the world, find in it the divine and humane nature of Christ, with other things no less admirable and sublime. lime. When I mentioned the Rabbinical dreams about the creation of this pillar or cloud, I forgot to relate that several of them held it to have been created on the evening of the first sabbath, though God is said to have rested that day from all his works. But this evening was no part of the sabbath, according to the way of dividing time by the modern Jews. To be sure the sacred pillars of the heathens had their original from the guiding pillar of the Israelites, as not a few good Christians have affirmed. tius, in what he calls his Demonstratio Evangelica, finds it in the temple of Apollo, nay in the mysteries of Bacchus; and gravely says, that it gave rise to the pillars of Hercules, and to the other memorial pillars of the ancients! It is pity he has not found their architecture and orders in it, which he might have done as easily as the rest. In effect, there have been such as disputed, whether it was an upright or an inverted column, because smoke spreads larger as it mounts; and if such fancies be indulged, it may be proved to have been a wreathed column, since the ascending of sinoke appears spiral; and yet neither wreathed nor inverted, but straight and pyramidal, which is the proper motion of flame. Finally, the Jews expect, that, at the coming of the Messiah, upon the future return of the twelve tribes, from all the countries where they are dispersed, this cloud will again precede them to the holy land, whither I wish them a good journey: though, during the time of their waiting, I am far from being weary of their company here; where they are most useful subjects, and many of them my very good friends.

Hue

*Atque hæc pensanti mihi probabile fit, columnas illas celebres, Hercules ex columna ignea, Ebræorum exercitum præeunte originem habuisse. Et nos jam observavimus ex Clemente Alexandrino, Bacchum et Apollinem, qui Mosis icones sunt, Columnæ symbolo, propter eandem Columnam, Israelitarum ducem, fuisse expressos. Tot commentitias Columnas peperit una hæc Columna, in qua delitescens dominus, ducem se itineris Ebræis præbuit, &c. Propos. IV. Sect. de libro Josuæ, num. 13.